Documenting the Kalasha language: some Challenges and Solutions.
Elizabeth Mela-Athanasopoulou · 2009
The present paper based on extensive fieldwork conducted on Kalasha, an endangered language spoken in the three small valleys in Chitral District of Northwestern Pakistan, exposes a spontaneous dialogue-based elicitation of linguistic material used for the description and documentation of the language. After a brief display of the basic typology of elicitation techniques (Himmelmann 2006) and a thorough discussion of my fieldwork on a language threatened by extinction, I have shown with my natural data recordings (audio-visual) how most essential documentation is for the revitalization of a language pressurized by outside forces. Kalasha young man and woman. Kalasha girls preparing for the Spring Festival. In the background, their village. BACKGROUND The Kalasha language is spoken in the mountain valleys of Chitral, North‐West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The most recent research conducted by Taleem Khan, my language consultant under our fieldwork program, has documented 3254 speakers of Kalasha in July 2008. They live in densely built‐up villages in three valleys along Kunar river: Rumbur, Bumburet and Birir. There are two more valleys,